San Pedro del Pinatar - Murcia Province
Holiday town by the Mar Menor Sea, combined with a nature reserve.
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San Pedro del Pinatar is about 49 kilometres from the provincial capital, Murcia. The municipality is situated between the Mediterranean Sea coast and the Mar Menor ("Little Sea")a coastal saltwater lagoon which is the largest in Europe. The Mar Menor coast belongs to other three municipalities: San Javier, Los Alcázares and Cartagena. The latter is not by the Mar Menor itself, but in the Mediterranean. San Pedro del Pinatar occupies a small peninsula with 14 kilometres of coastline between the two seas. The terrain is a mostly low-lying littoral depression, with an average elevation of only 13 metres above mean sea level.
Pedro del Pinatar is one of the main tourist destinations on the Murcia coast. Traditionally a seafaring and agricultural centre, San Pedro del Pinatar has become one of the principal tourist towns on Murcia's Costa Cálida.
The main attractions of San Pedro
Around the beach and shore is Lo Pagán, a lively tourist centre which has all kinds of holiday facilities, such as hotels, bars, restaurants and shops. Next to the long promenade facing the Mar Menor are extensive beaches such as La Puntica or Villananitos. This watery setting, combined with the facilities at its marina, means you can enjoy a great many sports, such as sailing, scuba diving or windsurfing.
As well as one of the town's architectural symbols, the Quintín mill, 
the surrounding area contains the Salinas de San Pedro del Pinatar Regional Park, a space where a great many species of migratory birds come to nest. You can also benefit from the therapeutic properties of its mud, especially suitable for treating bone and skin ailments.
San Pedro Salt works nature reserve
San Pedro del Pinatar salt works are the most significant marshland area of Murcia's Region. They were stated Nature Reserve Regional Park on 1985. Flamingos and other migratory bird flocks nest here every year, using this Nature Reserve as a stopping place in their migrations between Europe and Africa.
San Pedro del Pinatar Salt works Nature Reserve is a unique Mediterranean coastal spot. Within a relatively small space (700 Ha. -about 1.800 acres-)Dunas de San Pedro, 2,5 Kb. you can see terrain formations such as salt works, dunes, salt marshes, reed beds, large and wild sand beaches, pine trees growing in the sands and "encañizadas" (Traditional fishing system in Mar Menor. It lies in capturing the fishes that swim through small natural channels from Mediterranean Sea to Mar Menor lake. The fishes are forced to pass across a complex labyrinth built with reeds and wood pieces and they are captured)
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The bird's fauna is specially important. Flamingos are the kings of the area, because of their spectacular nature. Flamingo flocks arrive to the Nature Reserve at the end of the Summer to hibernate. There are two bird watching areas from which you can observe these and many other birds, such as herons, eaglets, owls, storks, stork lets (himantopus himpantopus) seagulls, charranes (sterna hirundo) Antiguo molino salinero, 5 Kb. chorlitos patinegros (charadrius alexandrinus) and avocetas (avosetta recurvirostra) among other species.
The salt works have been in existence for centuries. Fourteen Century documents mention them. The two windmills, still in existence, were used to pump the salty Mar Menor water to the salt work ponds. Now they use electrical pumps, but the windmills are still part of the landscape.